More than 300 dead and neglected animals were found on a Drakesville site in Davis County last month. / Special to The Des Moines Register

by Mike Kilen, The Des Moines Register

by Mike Kilen, The Des Moines Register

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The calls came in shortly after Tom Colvin had cleared entire rooms at the Animal Rescue League of Iowa for 353 critters in the latest animal hoarding case.

They came from concerned animal lovers, rescue groups and families who wanted a rabbit, mouse or duck, taken from the ramshackle residence of Roger Blew in Drakesville last month.

"But we also had a number of people calling us - people who knew him or had bought from him - that wanted to be clear that this guy is not a hoarder, he's a swapper," Colvin said. "Tomato, to-mah-toe. From our view, it went beyond the ability of this guy to care for the animals."

Blew's arrest has prompted questions about animal hoarding in a state with huge volumes of confined animals, a steady schedule of animal swap meets and numerous online postings from Iowans selling everything from zebras to woodchucks.

Blew, 45, faces 28 charges of animal neglect after a team of law enforcement and animal rescue officials found more than 300 dead or neglected animals, including rats, mice, raccoons, fox, chipmunks, roosters, potbellied pigs, goats, rabbits, skunks and many other species, caged or running around in outbuildings and 6 inches of feces.

They even hauled out a cockatiel, a Chilean degu (a big rodent with a long tail) and a confounding group of cockroaches, not your household variety. First thought to be imported hissing cockroaches, the 2-inch creatures were later labeled dubia cockroaches from Central and South America, often used to feed reptiles, said Ginny Morgal of Iowa State University's Insect Zoo, which took possession of the crawlers.

"He probably saw them on Craigslist. I get stuff off Craigslist all the time, probably once a week," Morgal said.

The case may highlight the ease in critter commerce fueled by the Internet, but authorities say it went beyond that into neglect.

"It was really a horrendous situation. Sanitation was very poor. The worst part of it was we had dead animals with live animals," said Josh Colvin, animal control services manager for Des Moines, who took part in the effort to extract animals from the premises. "We had all stages of decay, everything from bones to freshly buried."

The boiled-down definition of an animal hoarder, experts say, is a person having more than a typical number of animals and failing to provide minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation or shelter.

Blew had one of the largest number of species that the Animal Rescue League in Des Moines has seen.

Officials say the incidence of animal hoarding is growing. The ARL typically handles three hoarding cases a year, but nationwide, the number has doubled in the past four years, according to the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

The growth is driven by television shows on hoarding that bring attention to the issue, an economic downturn that left hoarders with fewer resources to take care of their animals, and the growing availability of creatures for sale online, said Randal Lockwood of the American Society for the Prevention of Animal Cruelty.

But when does the collection of animals grow from a widow with too many cats to animal hoarding?

Lockwood said hoarders have no insight into the signs of animal sickness or injury and may even have dead animals on their premises. They ignore their own safety and health and sit in squalor - urine, feces and clutter. They frequently see themselves as rescuers, although often in secret.

Some residents of Drakesville say privately that they knew that Blew had animals, just not that number of animals.

But they could not help but notice his home, which sits just a block off the main street in this tiny town southwest of Ottumwa.

Blew's home sits next to the Drakesville Fire Department and is surrounded by heaping piles of garbage, plastic tubs, wagons, tillers, milk cans, lawn ornaments, tires, an old wood stove, a mobile home and a van with its hood up.

Inside a broken screen door last week, piles of junk were visible in the front entrance. Knocks on the door were unanswered, and Blew could not be reached by telephone.

Why does anyone collect so many things, so many animals?

"There's no great answer. Experts are still trying to figure it out," said Nathaniel Wade, associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University. "There's some suggestion it might be related to traumatic experiences, perhaps as kids or young adults, which create an attachment problem."

The impetus also could be related to obsessive disorders or irregular cognitive functioning, such as people keeping things out and stacked to know where they can find them.

Adding living creatures to the problem brings a whole new set of concerns.

The stereotype is an older woman with a house full of cats. There is some truth to it - most animal hoarding cases involve a single species, either cats or dogs (75 percent), Lockwood said. And women make up 72 percent of the cases.

"The hoarder has a mental illness. It's not about the animal, it's about having," said Bianca Zaffarano, a clinician with the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University.

Because Blew had several species, it led some animal rescue officials to think this could be a case of excessive swapping, perhaps leading to hoarding.

Department of Natural Resources records show Blew had both bought and sold creatures such as skunks and raccoons.

"One form of animal hoarding we see is what we call an overwhelmed caregiver," said Roger Frost, an animal hoarding expert at Smith College. "This is someone who would otherwise be able to handle a reasonable number of animals, but they get overwhelmed by a change in circumstances - illness, loss of job. They do not ask for help, and assume they can somehow catch up but don't."

Animals are a big part of Iowa, which likely has the largest combined number of livestock raised among all states, said agriculture officials. Iowa is No. 1 in hogs and laying hens, sixth in cattle inventory, ninth in turkey production and 10th in sheep and lamb inventory.

"Because Iowa is an agrarian economy with production, you would think we have more compassion to animals. It may be the other way, that animals are something to use," Zaffarano said.

She resists saying that mindset leads to hoarding or neglect.

"There's a big difference between people collecting them because, gee whiz, it's cool to have them, and those who have too many animals to take care of. I think that people get in over their heads. We see it all the time. I think sometimes it's more curiosity and ignorance."

She gets calls from people in over their heads with potbellied pigs, monkeys and lemurs, even turtles that require a special diet. She suggests researching anything before you buy it. First, find out if it's legal.

"The illegal pet trade is alive and well all over the world," she said.

It will cost the ARL in Des Moines an estimated $7,000 to handle the critters taken from Blew's residence.

They fed and cleaned them, treated them for mites and minor injuries, and housed them in stacks of crates. By early this week, only about 100 creatures were left to place, mostly mice and hamsters but also seven pot-bellied pigs and a cockatiel. Two critters died in transport.

A pregnant rabbit went to a school, where it gave birth. Families took hamsters. Rescue organizations kicked into gear to take everything from pigeons to ducks.

"With about any species, you are going to find enthusiasts," Tom Colvin said.

They are people like Jeff and Natalie Harding, who run a turkey farm near Baxter. They took in roosters that keep the insect population down in the farm yard. They took in pigeons because they are a hobby. They took ducks and geese and pheasant for her father, who lives on a nearby acreage and likes to feed them.

"We just enjoy animals. When you have a place for them and can help out, it's worthwhile," Natalie Harding said. "I've even got two baby goats living in my kitchen."